The Spring 2016 Nutty Tilez Champions! (UK)

In May, our second Nutty Tilez competition was a huge success! Students across the world fought it out to prove their language-learning prowess, once and for all! Here we present the winners:

French

1. James, Habs Boys

First place in French went to James from Habs boys, who took the lead right from the start!

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

Our class have had some lessons doing thisislanguage exercises, and when completed we eagerly open up nutty tilez to compete against one another.

2. How did you feel when you started?

After waiting a day or so during the qualifying round, I was very excited at the prospect of starting the final round and levelling up.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I was very content after having watched the clock run down on the coach home.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

I’ve learned a bunch of new words, which will be very useful for everyday conversations in French.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I find the video puzzles and gap-fills extremely helpful for improving comprehension of the language, and also for learning new words and phrases.

2. Sam, Cumnock Academy

Sam sat his Advanced Higher French exam not long after the competition, and he said that he knew a lot of the vocabulary in the reading paper because he had learned it when doing the Nutty Tilez competition! Good to see the game coming in handy.

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I log on to This is language regularly so I always aimed to get through a few rounds each time.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I felt the competitiveness at the start. I wanted to get through as many rounds as I could before I had to drag myself away to do other studying.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I felt so relieved to end in 2nd place. There was always the fear that every time I logged in I would discover that I had been overtaken! Although, I wish I had more time – I was SO determined to reach level 50.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Definitely! It is so good being able to widen my vocabulary in a challenging way. The time limit and only having one life in order to level up keeps you on your toes. This is language has helped me greatly improve my French (and German) vocabulary.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I like that each video comes with 4 different exercises. I feel like that allows me to completely understand the video. I also like how the grammar exercises are presented, with the different question types for that as well.

3. Rishi-Nayan, Habs Boys

4. Rhiannon, La Mare de Carteret

5. Jasmin, Brigshaw High School and Language College

6. Aditya, Habs Boys

7. Samuel, Sutton Valence School

8. Torera, Downe House

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I prepared by reading a lot of vocab books!

2. How did you feel when you started?

I felt nervous at first.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I was very happy with my result!

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

It definitely helped me learn a lot of new vocabulary I didn’t know before.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I like the listening activities 🙂

9. Terence, Haileybury College

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

Quite frankly I didn’t prepare at all for the competition, unless you count the qualifying round. I know of others who had been playing Nutty Tilez for a while, but I hadn’t played until last Wednesday.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I remember I wanted to get as far ahead as possible as I knew I had lessons and hence would not be able to play during that time. My friend Alfie was up there for a bit as well when we started playing at 8am but obviously afterwards we were preoccupied.

3. How did you feel at the end?

The last six minutes I still tried to complete some levels. I’m not sure if I stayed on the leaderboard throughout the day (probably not), but I tried to climb up a couple of places before the end. I’d actually also qualified for Spanish as well – I should’ve told my Spanish teacher there was a cash prize sooner (rather than at the end of my lesson)!

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Quite – there is naturally a sort of pressure to quickly translate the vocabulary and type it in, etc. I’d say it’s human nature to do well in games such as these, and so it helps train one to almost instinctively think in another language.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I found the videos quite helpful – they feature native speakers, and I think being thrown into a language really helps one advance quickly, similarly to how Nutty Tilez does (in a slightly different way).

10. Soobin, ACS Cobham

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I did not really prepare for it because I was not aware of this competition until my French teacher introduced it to our class.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I felt competitive because I thought this was a good way to prove my knowledge in French and since it was a good way to represent out school.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I was surprised and relieved because I did not even expect myself to get to the tenth place and relieved because the time pressure for each game was over.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I really like the fact you can practice every bit of skills in French such as reading, listening and grammar, which are so helpful when it comes to exams and tests.

Spanish

1. Uma, St Helen’s School London

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I ate lots of chocolate-anything sugary really (for energy purposes of course) and did lots of typing practice, because when you’re playing Demon Dante, every second counts!

2. How did you feel when you started?

I liked the way that this time the competition had a qualifying round, then a final. It meant that after I’d qualified I had a whole day to get equally nervous and excited about the final. Because the final was on a Friday, the whole day during school I was looking at the clock, counting down the time till I could go home – not because I was excited for the weekend, but because I just wanted to get onto Nutty Tilez!

3. How did you feel at the end?

The last few minutes were really tense, and when I’d finally finished I just let out this huge sigh of relief! It felt amazing to win because I’d been going at it for 2 hours – but there was still part of me that wished it could have lasted longer… 😉

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Absolutely, and there is such a noticeable difference when I use Spanish now. What’s so great about Nutty Tilez is that you’re learning so much new vocab, but you’re having so much fun at the same time and it honestly doesn’t feel like work at all! I think I’m quite a competitive person as well which is perhaps why it appeals to me, but I can’t recommend it enough to everyone – I promise you’ll be addicted after a few days (like me!)​

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

​This will sound strange, but it would have to be the new Grammar section actually. I think it’s a great way of revising especially as a lot of the time I’m not quite sure how exactly to revise languages.

2. Yann, The Wavell School

3. Ananya, St. Helen’s School London

4. Angelina Skulbedova, Hope Academy

5. Phoebe, St Ursula’s Convent

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I’ve played the game before, so when I got home, I told my brother to just leave me alone as I only had an hour to get it done! (because it was 8-6 and I’d been at revision so was a bit late home.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I guess a bit excited, but I didn’t think I was going to win

3. How did you feel at the end?

A bit disappointed as I only had an hour so thought I could have done better

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

I think the game in general is good for vocab because it makes you remember and recall the words really fast. As you’d need to do in a conversation!

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

I like the gap fills, as that is the most challenging for listening and then the comprehension afterwards.

6. Melisa, Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet

7. Jake, Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I played Nutty Tilez regularly after hearing of the competition so that I could get some good practice.

2. How did you feel when you started?

When I started, I felt confident, as I levelled up 5 times in about 25 minutes.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I felt very happy that I was on the leader board because the top 10 was very close and I could’ve easily dropped out.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Yes, because I can remember a lot more words now, which will help me in my upcoming GCSE exam.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

Apart from Nutty Tilez, I enjoy learning new vocabulary on the exercises such as the gap-fills and the comprehension activities.

8. Mikeet, Habs Boys

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I prepared for the contest by, at the beginning of each new level simply learning the vocab lists! Towards the end I found that this was a lot more efficient than playing a level where you haven’t seen the vocab list; the pure ferocity and determination of your opponents is too hard to overcome with no knowledge!

2. How did you feel when you started?

When the contest started, I started late and was on level six with a few hours left to qualify. I was sure I wasn’t to get to level 15. But never under-estimate how addictive Nutty Tilez can be! Within one hour of intense typing I was proudly through to the final stage.

3. How did you feel at the end?

At the end, I was very pleased to get in the top 10, and when I found out what the reward was I was even happier! The hard work had paid off!

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

I think that the contest has immensely helped my knowledge of Spanish vocabulary. I have learned many new useful words in Spanish which will be very useful to my knowledge of Spanish in lessons and this knowledge of useful vocabulary can be useful when abroad in Spanish-speaking countries.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

Besides Nutty Tilez (of course!) my favourite feature of thisislanguage.com is the comprehensions based on audio videos. This improves my listening skills for GCSE language exams and helps me focus on my technique of capturing the important words such as using cognates (words that sound the same in different language, such as delicious, which is delicioso in Spanish.)

9. Ned, Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I had been revising for my exams.

2. How did you feel when you started?

Doubtful.

3. How did you feel at the end?

Relieved.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Definitely.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

The jigsaw listening activities for the videos.

10. Zea, Rugby School

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I prepared for the contest by going over the vocabulary list and making sure I knew how to spell all the words.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I felt excited at the beginning of the competition. I was eager to see how far I could get and push my Spanish vocabulary to the limits.

3. How did you feel at the end?

At the end, I was happy that I’d made it as far as I had. I didn’t have much time the day of the final round and so I couldn’t sit down and really concentrate.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

I think the contest helped me improve the bits of basic vocabulary I might have forgotten or not known at all, which really helps with my written Spanish.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

Aside from Nutty Tilez, I like the way you can chose what topic of vocabulary you’d like to practise or learn and then really work at it until you’ve nailed all the words.

German

1. Jaymie, Arbroath Academy

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?
I was introduced to ThisIsLanguage.com a few weeks ago by the Modern Languages Department and ever since I have been addicted! I regularly use the “Vocab” section and it helped me to remember some words that often pop up in Nutty Tilez.

2. How did you feel when you started?
I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed on Wednesday morning and was raring to go!

3. How did you feel at the end?
Overjoyed that I managed to get so far in the competition. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

4. How did the contest help with your language(s)?
For me, the whole website has been an excellent resource to use especially at this time of year as it is getting closer to my German exam. Nutty Tilez has been particularly useful for me as it helps to restore my memory of important vocabulary and it is also a fun way for me to get information into my head as I am a visual learner. All in all it is really refreshing to see such thought and hard work put into a project that explores in depth the wonders of various modern languages. I can only hope that the site continues to grow and be successful as it really is such a fantastic creation.

5. What is your favourite thing on ThisIsLanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?
I love the video section on the website as it not only opens you up to different and potentially new vocabulary but it allows you to hear the accents of people from Germany which can further help when it comes to things like speaking assessments in class.

2. Aishwarya, St. Helen’s School London

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I was unaware of the fact that there was a competition, and so I did not prepare for it.

2. How did you feel when you started?

There was a sudden surge of adrenaline running through me at 8am, when the competition started.

3. How did you feel at the end?

A sense of joy and relief filled me at the end, however I would have liked another day to reach level 50.

5. What is your favourite thing on ThisIsLanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

My favourite thing on thisislanguage.com would definitely be the videos, as they enhance my oral performance.

3. Harjivan, Habs Boys

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

Unfortunately I only found out about the contest just before it began, so I was slightly caught off guard and did not manage to prepare at all.

2. How did you feel when you started?

I was slightly nervous as my preparation was limited and I knew the competition would be tough, but excited to participate – hopefully I would be able to refine my German spelling and be introduced to some new vocabulary. having only made it to level 7 prior to the contest I was determined to beat that score.

3. How did you feel at the end?

Having been engaged in an intense battle right up to the end at 6:00 for third place and edged ahead just before the closing time, I was naturally overjoyed, and also pleased with the improvement to my German skills.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Of course – my vocabulary bank has greatly increased in volume, and this vocabulary is particularly relevant for my GCSE exams next year.

5. What is you favourite thing on thisislanguage.com aside from Nutty Tilez?

I particularly enjoy the videos available, and the supplementary exercises with them have proved helpful for me in improving my German language skills in general.

4. Rebecca, Baines School

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I didn’t because I didn’t realise there was going to be a contest but I had been using nutty tilez for a while before to learn vocab

2. How did you feel when you started?

I didn’t feel like I would be able to qualify in time

3. How did you feel at the end?

I felt proud to have got as far as I did

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Yes because I can now remember more vocab and my long term memory of vocab has improved

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

The videos because they help to prepare for listening exams by helping me to hear key words and phrases and by helping with comprehension tasks

5. Akshi, Habs Boys

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I tried to learn all checklists before the competition started-it was very difficult to do this as there were 50 but it payed off in the end!

2. How did you feel when you started?

I felt determined, excited and slightly nervous as to how I would do in the competition.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I felt happy and satisfied with my progress. I also felt good about my progress in German. I also have a bad grudge with Demon Dante!

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

The competition has no doubt helped me to build on my German knowledge and basic vocabulary levels which has already helped me in a few exams -great!.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

The video features helps me listen to the accent used and allows me to build up on my own.

6. Sophie, St. Catherine’s School

7. Robyn, The Wavell School

8. Dominic, Carre’s Grammar School

1. How did you prepare for the Nutty Tilez contest?

I had already achieved a reasonably high level in Nutty Tilez before the contest, so many of the words were familiar to me.

2. How did you feel when you started?

Excited! It is quite fun and addictive under the time pressure.

3. How did you feel at the end?

I felt proud of succeeding and that the effort/time was worth it.

4. Do you think the contest helped you with your languages?

Yes. The contest helped with my vocabulary knowledge, which will come in handy when speaking and reading German, as well as for my exams.

5. What is your favourite thing on thisislanguage.com, aside from Nutty Tilez?

Personally, I quite enjoy the jigsaws, it is an easier step to learning vocabulary.